Huge video projectors could reshape urban skylines.

Is the office building across the street looking a little blasé? High powered projectors can turn the side of any structure into a huge canvas for living art. Dynamic images cover enormous surfaces often with some really cool augmented reality overtones. We’ve seen some impressive displays of this technology in the past, but now a company out of the UK, LCI Productions, has given us some more videos to gawk at. With multiple groups able to transform massive walls into massively cool art shows, we may be seeing the beginning of a field that forever alters urban environments. Check out three cool videos of LCI’s work below.

We’ve previously seen building-sized projections in presentations by German group UrbanScreen. Like LCI, they too use powerful video projectors to put custom designed displays on large walls. No matter how you approach the concept the results are pretty consistent: large scale urban structures are imbued with crowd pleasing art. According to both LCI and UrbanScreen, each location requires its own special design so that images and buildings can be matched correctly. That means each project is one of a kind and a fairly big investment. There are simpler examples of the idea, however, such as writing with a high powered laser – a project described in the Graffiti Research Lab. That massive laser-pen can be setup quickly at almost any location. In the future, we may see both styles of urban projection transform buildings into massive video displays. That could mean a lot more cool art, but it will probably also lead to more advertisements. Buildings themselves could become huge billboards. Practical applications, like building-sized warnings for impending disasters or even just traffic delays, may show up as well. In any case it seems like our night-time environments are about to get much more colorful. I can’t wait.

The Marble Arch in London with some fun video projections:

That same arch with a calmer and more-attuned presentation:

A general overview of LCI’s work…some pretty cool stuff here:

[image credit: LCI Productions]
[video credit: LCI Productions, Mister Crazy Kid via YouTube]
[source: LCI-UK]